


Mending What You Can

by dreamwriteremmy (ehryniewi)



Series: Feels like a lie when I hold you [1]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Community: getyourwordsout, Headcanon, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Introspection, M/M, Martyr Complex, Mildly Dubious Consent, Neglect, Post-Episode: e070A Taking Off, Post-Episode: e070B Review, Secondary Traumatic Stress, broken relationships, challenge: crowdfunding creative jam, challenge: the pig in a poke proverbial writing challenge, compassion fatigue, drive to fix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-21
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-04-05 12:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4179321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ehryniewi/pseuds/dreamwriteremmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos might be back in Night Vale, but he’s not sure if he’s made the right choice: is it really mending when you replace one broken relationship with another?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mending What You Can

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** Mending What You Can  
>  **Rating:** G  
>  **Word Count:** 298  
>  **Prompt:** Mending What You Can (ysabetwordsmith's title prompt for [Creative Jam June 2015 on Broken Relationships](http://crowdfunding.dreamwidth.org/253817.html)), "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" (getyourwordsout's The pig in a poke proverbial writing challenge)  
>  **Original/Fandom:** Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale  
>  **Content Warnings:** unhealthy relationships (borderlining dubcon in one, borderlining neglect in the other), martyr complex/drive-to-fix, compassion fatigue  
>  **Summary:** Carlos might be back in Night Vale, but he’s not sure if he’s made the right choice: is it really mending when you replace one broken relationship with another?  
>  **Notes:** This is Carlos-introspective angst headcanon set after the most recent anniversary episodes of Welcome to Night Vale (70A Taking Off and 70B Review). This is this session's freebie.

Optimistic speech of “home is where the heart is” and a long night of discussion with Cecil aside, Carlos still isn’t sure he’s right. 

Night Vale, Desert Bluffs and the Desert Otherworld all live by “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” but even if Night Vale is home because it’s where Cecil is, he can’t believe that’s the right way to deal with problems he wants to solve. A scientist asks questions and then solves things even if he doesn’t know the mechanism of action yet. 

In his quest to mend his relationship with Cecil, he’s had to throw Kevin under the bus. Set boundaries he’s not sure are healthy to begin with. And he knows how lonely his boyfriend’s double is. Every time Cecil complained about missing him, asked again if he’d find a door and he’d promise tomorrow again and again, Kevin would echo Cecil’s desperation with an equally desperate “don’t leave me”. It was terrifying how much the two mirrored each other’s begging. 

Carlos had thought that _maybe_ if he stayed one more month, Kevin would get better. That maybe by staying he could fix everyone. That he could stop the Masked Warriors from fighting the many other armies marching in different directions across the desert. That he could save Kevin from himself. Instead, he’d found himself running out of capacity to listen to Cecil and help him because he was so busy firefighting everything in the Desert Otherworld and finding the only solace in trying to desperately distract himself with his research which ultimately turned into the longest and most fruitless timesink in the history of his scientific career.

It’s been a long year of mistakes. But is it really mending when you replace one broken relationship with another?


End file.
